Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The EISA
post season kicked off this weekend under clear blue skies at the Saint Lawrence
University Carnival and EISA regional championships this weekend. While the
race morning temperatures were little warmer than they had been all season, the
sunshine more than made up for the cold conditions.

Racing began
Friday with the men’s 10 km skate race on the grueling Ladies Olympic 5km loop.
The brutal climbs didn’t seem to faze the men from Dartmouth and UVM, as they
went on to dominate, taking the top 8 positions. Patrick Caldwell (DAR) put to
rest any lingering doubt from the Middlebury Carnival, cruising into first more
than 30 seconds ahead of Rogan Brown (UVM) who took second. Jan Ketterson (DAR)
raced to third, edging out Jorgen Grav (UVM) by a little over 4 seconds. Silas
Talbot (DAR), Fabian Stocek (DAR), Jack Hegman (UVM), and Cole Morgan (UVM)
rounded out the two schools’ 8 position sweep. Dartmouth managed to secure the
win on the day, 133 points to 125.

Patrick Caldwell of Dartmouth powers his way up the grueling climbs on his way to victory in the mens 10 km skate. (Silke Hynes/EISA).

Next up were
the women, racing just one loop of the 5 km course. With the course doing the
vast majority of its climbing in the first 3.5km, the women had to ski aggressively
right from the start. Heather Mooney (MID) did just that, securing her 6th
carnival win of the season. Annika Taylor (UNH), wearing the red freestyle
leader bib, finished second, just 2.6 seconds ahead of UVM’s Stephanie Kirk. Kirk’s
teammates Alayna Sonnesyn and Marion Woods rounded out the top five, giving the
UVM women the win on Friday.

Stephanie Kirk of UVM races to her first podium of the season in the women's 5 km skate. (Silke Hynes/EISA)

Saturday
dawned one of the nicest race days all season, but the sunshine and rapidly
warming temperatures proved to be a waxing challenge for coaches. The men’s 20
km mass start classic started first, doing 4 laps of the Ladies 5km loop for a total
of 732m of climbing. Once again it was Patrick Caldwell (DAR) who topped the
podium, racing to a commanding 2 minute and 24 second win. He was followed by a
very close race between Jorgen Grav (UVM) and Fabian Stocek (DAR). Grav just
beat Stocek to the line, taking second by 0.8 seconds. Jack Hegman and Rogan
Brown of UVM rounded out the top 5. The race was once again dominated by UVM
and Dartmouth with just one UNH skier breaking up the two school sweep of the
top ten. Dartmouth came out on top, beating UVM by just 4 points.

The men from Dartmouth and UVM dominated the field in the men's 20 km Classic mass start. (Silke Hynes/EISA)

The final
race of the 2015 carnival season was the women’s 15 km classic mass start. UNH
senior Annika Taylor made her final carnival start count, taking victory by
more than 10 seconds. She was followed by Heather Mooney and Kelsey Phinney of
Middlebury in second and third respectively. Cory Stock (DAR) and Marion Woods
(UVM) rounded out the top five. A strong supporting performance from Stella
Holt in 11th place helped the Middlebury College women take victory
on Saturday.

Kelsey Phinney of Middlebury celebrates after edging out Cory Stock (DAR) by half a second for 3rd place. (Silke Hynes/EISA)

The St.
Lawrence carnival marked the end of a very cold carnival season, but for the
top EISA athletes racing continues in just over a week’s time. They will be
back in Lake Placid for the NCAA Skiing Championships hosted by Saint Lawrence
University March 11th-14th.